Sunday, January 25, 2009

The Reign of Godzilla

You know when Evgeny Grachev makes the jump to the professional ranks after this season, we are going to have start working again.

Godzilla makes life easy as all you have to do is take his previous game and change the name of the opposition, add in the final score and poof you are done.

Take Sunday as Grachev scored a goal and 2 assists against the Kitchener Rangers just as he did on Friday against Plymouth. Just like Friday, Grachev was named the game's first star as his Brampton Battalion shut out the Rangers 6-0.

We will not get on Grachev's case for only being a +2 in this game as we are getting spoiled by his efforts. Grachev's goal was his 27th of the season and this one was a tad different than what we are used to seeing.

In the second period, Grachev took the play (unassisted) right to the Ranger's goalie, Grachev did not try anything fancy and just took what was offered and shoved the puck 5-hole past Ranger goalie Parker Van Buskirk. It was part finesse, part power but as others have noted it is part of the "new" Grachev.

Since returning to the Battalion from the World Under-20's, Grachev has been playing with more purpose as well more confidence. We heard whispers that the Rangers wanted Grachev to take the play to the other teams and not defer to his teammates.

If that is the case then Grachev is also someone who is willing to listen and accept coaching as Grachev has gone 8-10-18 since his return. Grachev also now has his second 10 game scoring streak of the season (and now a 4 game goal scoring streak)

Grachev got his day going by setting up teammate Jason Dale just 38 seconds into the game and it was all Brampton from there. Grachev got his second point of the night with a secondary assist on Josh Day's first goal with the Battalion.

Grachev is now 27-26-53, +26 with just 14 PIMS. Brampton is using him in every situation and with 21 regular season games remaining is on a pace for 42 goals and 40 assists.

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Mitch Gaulton (2008 6th) and his Erie Otters dropped their 2nd straight game as they lost to the Ottawa 67's 4-2. Gaulton really struggled in this one as he was a -3 for the game but in many ways the insane scheduling that the Canadian juniors do at times is more the cause for this loss than anything else.

The Otters were playing their 3rd road game in as many nights and sorry something is wrong with that kind of scheduling. To give you an idea what kind of traveling the Otters have done:

Any wonder why Erie lost 2 of 3 here? It does not matter if they are teenagers as you try riding a bus, play a game, shower get back on the bus to travel to the next town like they did

Antoine Lafleur (2007 2nd) got to watch as his Rouyn-Noranda Huskies dropped their 3rd straight game this time to the Rimouski Oceanic 5-2. The Huskies are struggling having gone 3-5-1-1 in their last 10 games.

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Monday the parents of Jordan Mistelbacher are going to bury their son. Who is Jordan Mistelbacher really is not all that important other than we are sure someone with a grudge against hockey will look for a way to blame his death on the game rather than the true cause.

That true cause is believed to be binge drinking as the former member of the Everett Silvertips died on Jan 13th after a night of partying with friends. The 19 year old had returned to Winnipeg after being cut by the Silvertips but Mark Mistelbacher is wanting to concentrate the focus on binge drinking not hockey as why his son is gone.

Please take the time to read this story at the Winnipeg Free Press whether you are a parent or a child as there is a lesson to be learned here. Our hearst go out to the Mistelbacher, the Everett Silvertips and their fans as the very popular Mistelbacher is going to be missed.

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Finally our frustrations with Blogger are reaching the point to where we are seriously considering moving Prospect Park to another site. When you can not sign into your own blog without having to jump though hoops something is wrong.

When you are offered no way of contacting support then it is even more frustrating. It should not take us 30 minutes of emails to be able to sign in here.

Please if you want to recommend another blog site let us know the good and bad of other places.

2 comments:

Sorry can't help you with blog issues as the blog I keep is more personal instead of what you are doing ... hope you find a good place ...

Grachev ...

I am so excited over him ... I really hope we can re-sign Zherdev because I think it would rock to have Grachev, Anisimov and Zherdev together ... maybe not all on the same line but at least on the same team ... although as excited as I am about Grachev I am apprehensive as to when I want to see him with the team ... I would say next season for sure if he has a great training camp but then if Renney is still around I'd hesitate since Grachev, like other young players before him, will be held accountable not only for his shortcomings(if he has any) and those of his teammates ... at least that's how Renney's coached this season ... oh well